A lesson learned in high school

No matter how much I inquired about high school and told of the life of high school by older friends and some family members, I could never have been completely prepared. No book of advice or voice of wisdom can prepare another for the situations and feelings encountered in high school. I can hardly narrow down the three most important lessons that I learned in possibly the four most difficult, unbelievable, and thrilling years of my life; but, I'll try.

Being the oldest sibling, and having parents in their own little world I had no one to tell me or guide me. I had to put all my effort possible into everything that I did in high school. And I never settled for mediocre. Well, at least I tried not to. In my experience, I have found that as long as I had put my entire being and soul into trying something, I ended up feeling better about myself, no matter what the outcome was. But, even then I felt alone as a tree in a barren field.

In my years of high school, I spent my summers wishing I was at school but, even at school with the uprising of gangs and being a minority was hard. I do not know what was better to be at home or at school. Either way I felt like a step-child in a house full of people I did not really know. I knew I had to make a plan to succeed so I planned on being part of the world I did not like. I put more effort into this than anything else before. I never made the team of being a family member but I made the team of various groups at school. I guess you could say I belonged to a team no matter if it was good or bad, but you could say was more bad than good.

After looking back over the years of failures or can you really call it that? Maybe you can just call it a learning experience, something that has molded me. I look back at my failures as if I just got a ticket and the cop just drove away. Yes it happened, pay the price and move on, I would tell myself.

I knew that I trying my hardest at the game of high school. I never walked off the field of high school life saying to myself "you could have run faster" because I knew that I did my absolute best. After all was said and done, I did not feel regret or sadness. Sure I had fights and got suspended, but, what can I say it was life at high school it was no different at home. But, I have over come my failures by knowing that I did everything I could have done to be the best at school.

In high school, coping with failure comes easiest when you know that you put your all into doing something or you just don't care. But, I cared and I put my all into it. Everyone fails in high school or another part of life. And can succeed at one point or another.

During my time in high school gangs were rampant and life was different, but maybe again times have really not changed it is only a different year. But over all risk taking is another essential part of "the high school experience". Throughout early childhood, the biggest risk you have to take is coloring books. Before entering high school, any big decision that needed to by made was by parents or guardians that is if you had good parents or parents that were not kids themselves. At least, this is what I learned now later in my later years. For me high school was the place where you can take your own big risks, but still be able to pick up the pieces if things fell apart. Trying new things and challenging myself to explore previously uncharted territory that helped me figure out who I really was.

High school is like a sport and I knew I had to either get right on the team or if not try something else or just plainly quit school altogether. I finally decided to keep going to school, other words keep running in the high school cross country team. I was extremely apprehensive. But, I knew I was competitive and I might make it cross the line of graduation. I had no idea whether or not I could deal with the pressure of drugs, gangs and just falling off the team. I tried it anyway. In the journey through high school, I discovered my passion for trying. Throughout high school, I had also challenged myself academically. In middle school, I was always keeping afloat in classes. But, high school offered much more demanding and rigorous courses and the pressures of my piers along with the weight of my dysfunctional family. I could have taken the easier way out and opted for less demanding classes; but I didn't. I felt confident in myself that I would be up to the challenge. Taking this risk showed me of how much I was capable. Any high school team player would benefit from knowing that it is ok to take risks. If you happen to fail, there is usually a way out. But, only in taking risks do you discover parts of yourself you never knew existed.

The most important lesson that I could impart on any high school student would be to be yourself. Avoid following the crowd. One of the hardest lessons I had to learn in high school was how to be myself. Only as an adult can I look back on my high school experience and say these were the hardest lessons. As freshmen, we travel in packs as wolves to bathroom, play the sports that all of our friends play, and take the classes that all of out friends take. The more we progress through high school, the followers keep doing all the exact same things that their friends do, not because themselves enjoy doing so. But more than anything they are petrified of straying away from the crowd. The lesson I can give to students would be stray from the crowd. In my own personal experience, not being a follower and being true to myself has shown me who my real friends are. Your friends are not the people who want you to imitate them. Your friends are the people who respect and admire everything about you that is different, and love you for it. They do not judge you because you did not go out and get "hammered" last weekend, like "everyone else". Your real friends will be your friends no matter what you do. I speak highly of my friends because my friends were my family and support team. My family was my enemy and I found myself wanting to be away from home, a house of chaos and a cold lonesome place such as a boat in the wide sea.

As an adult and all that I care to remember is the three most important lessons that I can tell you about my experience is that I tried to put my entire effort into everything I did, and took risks, and most importantly, I was loyal to my true self. After all, all I had was my self.

Putting effort into all that you do, taking risks, and being loyal to yourself are the most important things that any student will learn in high school. Although, four years of experiences can, in no way, be grouped together in these three separate categories. From each individual experience in high school, many lessons may be learned. No matter how many times I thought to myself "this week, this month, this year will never end!", it always did. No matter how bad you think you "screwed up", time will fix everything that was meant to be fixed. I would also tell you is that I have learned from my experience that to make high school the best of the time you have. As I sadly and joyously tell you this I have learned now how important high school is and is over before you know it. Make sure your high school experience is one that you will look back and remember, whether your experience is good or bad. High school is a stepping stone for the real big school of college and life.

Even though my life at home was hard and I thought high school would of been easier than home life I could honestly say no matter what no one or any life experience could have ever completely prepared me for high school. And I care not to remember school or home. I am sad to say I did not graduate but received my GED in my senior year. Take advantage of school and learn all you can. And if you think you did not do so great reinventing yourself this time? Then there's always college. Remember education is good for every one, no one is too old.